Global Witness - Breaking the links between natural resources, conflict and corruption
Global Witness is working to prevent diamonds from fuelling conflict, human rights abuses and terrorism.
The illicit trade in rough diamonds is one of the greatest threats facing the Kimberley Process certification scheme. Six years afters the scheme's creation, the trafficking of conflict and illicit stones is looking more like a dangerous rule than an exception.
The campaign to combat conflict diamonds is calling for the government-run Kimberley Process Diamond Certification Scheme to be strengthened. The Kimberley Process must require strong government diamond controls that are fully enforced to make sure the diamond industry is not trading in conflict diamonds. The diamond industry as a whole must change the way it operates, and become more transparent and accountable.
Read our closing statement from the Namibia intersessional, June 2009
Read the press release issued ahead of the Namibia intersessional, June 2009
Read more about illicit diamonds and the Kimberley Process in this report from October 2008
Conflict Diamonds
Conflict diamonds, also known as blood diamonds, are diamonds that are used by rebel groups to fuel conflict and civil wars. They have funded brutal conflicts in Africa that have resulted in the death and displacement of millions of people. Diamonds have also been used by terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda to finance their activities and for money-laundering purposes.
Only a few African economies have actually benefited from diamonds, while Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Liberia and Sierra Leone are still recovering from widespread devastation resulting from wars fuelled by diamonds. Diamonds are being smuggled out of the rebel-held north of Cote d'Ivoire and out of eastern DRC, and continue to be used for money laundering, tax evasion and organized crime.
Global Witness and the Combating Conflict Diamond Campaign
Global Witness' ‘Combating Conflict Diamonds' campaign, launched in 1998, exposed the role of diamonds in funding conflict. This put the diamond industry, previously shrouded in secrecy, into the international spotlight. Growing international pressure from Global Witness and other NGOs demanded that governments and the diamond trade take action to eliminate the trade in conflict diamonds.
In response, in May 2000, the major diamond trading and producing countries, representatives of the diamond industry, and NGOs met in Kimberley, South Africa to determine how to tackle the conflict diamond problem. The meeting, hosted by the South African government, was the start of an important and often contentious three-year negotiating process to establish the Kimberley Process, an international diamond certification scheme. Global Witness continues to campaign for the effective implementation of the Kimberley Process to help ensure that diamonds can never again fuel conflict and can become a positive force for development.
Links
Go to Combating Conflict Diamonds Media Library
View Global Witness' latest press releases from the Conflict Diamond Campaign.
Latest Publications
June 2009
Governments urged to renew commitments as diamond meeting closes
Some progress at Kimberley Process diamond meeting but governments must do more to ensure scheme's effectiveness
Blood Diamonds - Time to Plug the Gaps
The landmark Kimberley Process is in danger of losing its credibility, civil society groups warn today, ahead of a key meeting of the scheme established to stop the trade in blood diamonds.
Verdict on UN Climate Change Talks in Bonn
Global Witness campaigner, Davyth Stewart, reflects on tough week of negotiations in Bonn, which yielded mixed results
Briefing note on imminent oil supply crunch
Global Witness is calling for governments to officially and publicly declare that there is an imminent
oil supply crunch and to take urgent measures to develop safe and sustainable alternative energy
systems
ECA Press Conference at Bonn
Going backwards or forwards on Forests and Climate? Environment groups under the bannner of the Ecosystems Climate Alliance hold joint press conference in Bonn as UN Climate Change meeting draws to a close
Global Groups Call for End to Deforestation in Bonn
Global coalition calls on negotiators to deliver a strong climate deal, warning that they will put all of our survival at risk if they do not act immediately to halt deforestation and the industrial logging of the world's primary forests
Global Witness hails commitment of veteran diamond campaigner
Global Witness today paid tribute to the efforts and commitment of Ian Smillie, a founding member of the Kimberley Process, who has decided to end his participation in the rough diamond certification scheme.
Vested interests - Industrial logging and carbon in tropical forests
Industrial logging is a major source of carbon emissions, a primary driver of deforestation and threatens to derail the UN process to reduce deforestation warns Global Witness in a new report.
